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Previously on Survivor, Jeremy narrowly avoided elimination when his staunch ally Julie quit the game after the merge. One of the most self-absorbed players in recent memory, Julie figuratively curled up the fetal position the moment John Rocker was eliminated. This leads us to wonder how someone could be so connected to a guy like Rocker that the idea of him leaving was anything other than glee-inducing.

Had we seen a Tribal Council, Jon and Jaclyn seemed prepared to flip on their previous alliance, because they felt it positioned them better for deep advancement in the game. The only flaw with their plan is that it seems to give a numbers advantage to Josh, the best player this season. The power couple is currently in the trickiest of Survivor positions – stuck between planning for the next couple of eliminations as opposed to thinking about end game. To their credit, Jon & Jaclyn do seem aware that it’s too early to worry about the final vote. That particular arrogance-based misstep has tripped up many previous players.

The episode begins basically where we left off last week. Jon & Jaclyn remain in conflict about their next move. Jon is all-in about the idea of eliminating Jeremy, whom Jon believes poses the biggest threat long-term. Jaclyn is much more concerned about the repercussions of flipping on their current alliance in order to join a bunch of dudes she doesn’t necessarily like that much. You have to wonder how Jaclyn felt about Jon’s football buddies at Michigan State.

An antagonistic relationship seems to be developing between Jaclyn and the guys. This is important because Natalie, Missy and Baylor would love nothing more than to develop a girls’ alliance. They can’t have the numbers yet, but the situation is definitely still fluid.

This episode wastes no time as we go straight to our Probst sighting. Today’s reward challenge is splitting the group into two teams. They’ll lug around the building pieces for a pyramid, which they must then put together. First team to finish gets to celebrate Taco Tuesday! No, seriously. There will be a taco bar with all the fixin’s. Needless to say, the Survivors are enthusiastic about the prospects of this prize.

Probst points out that after 19 days, the pieces are really heavy. Since the teams are picked schoolyard style (although this takes place off screen), Baylor is picked “last” and her mother Missy is not picked at all and has to sit out. The teams are Jon, Jaclyn, Baylor, Alec and Josh versus Natalie, Reed, Jeremy, Wes and Keith. Seems like the team with Baylor is at a disadvantage since she’s so small and the pieces are heavy, but we’ll see.

In fact, it turns out to not even be very close. Although Jon & Jaclyn’s team manages to get semi-close at the end, the team of mostly dudes takes the prize and will be enjoying a delicious taco dinner soon. But before that can happen, they’ll need to pick someone from the other team to send to Exile Island. They take a moment to discuss, and they feel bad about forcing Missy to sit out, so they decide against her. Eventually, they settle on Jon, because he’s a tough guy and he can take it. People sent to Exile Island no longer get to enjoy the company of another Survivor, so he’ll be roughing it alone.

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